I noticed that a lot of beginners have questions on how to to keyword research so I decided to come up with a simple tutorial. The right keywords will always make your job easier. Bear in mind that this does not focus on finding your own profitable niche to focus on. Step 1 - Google Keyword Tool Google the "Google keyword tool" by typing in some broad keywords in your particular niche. 1. Begin with a broad keyword that is related to your niche. 2. Set the targeting to "exact" for better keyword results. 3. Select all for ifno products or Filter for suitable countries. 4. I'd recommend you add filters for for keywords with CPC greater than $1 and at least 1000 searches. The reason for this is to buy potential buyers who are willing to pay for $1 per click. Step 2 - Sort by highest volume of searches Step 3 - Grab some long tail keywords you think are relevant For purposes of illustration I only added one that I think is relevant, but you can also grab others that you find useful as well. This will be saved by Google to serve as a future reference. Step 4 - Check Initial Competition Do you want money to come to you? Then check out for less competition. You will need to search for phrase keywords or keywords in quotes. If you are new to this then look for results less than 30,000 and of already an expert you can widen your search to 50,000. Search with the following variations as well: • intitle:"keyword in quotes" • inurl:"keyword in quotes" • inurl:"keyword in quotes" inurl"keyword in quotes" The rule is the lesser, the better. Step 5 - Get the REAL Competition The goal is to limit your competition with the sites appearing on page 1. Make use of a free plug-in from Mozilla Firefox called "SEOquake". Below is a demonstration. With this too you can actually see the Age and PR of the sites you are in competition with. If you can see results from web 2.0 sites such as Blogger, Ezine Articles, Hub pages and Squidoo then its a good sign. Do not rely on Ehow, About and Wikipedia as these are poor signs of getting your real competition. The more N/A sites and PR 0 sites the better. You'll want to look for low competition. Step 6 - Check the links of your top competition There are useful free tools like majesticseo.com and ahrefs.com and majesticseo.com that helps you see how many links your top competitors have. Here is an illustration from ahrefs.com Once again less is better since you will have to compete and beat those links. What to do with this information If you liked this, share this thread or hit thanks. What's working for you guys these days and what else would you add to this?